The  Woi^en  of  Tur^e^. 


By  Mrs.  J.  L.  Coffing. 


There!  Who  is  that?  His  hair  uncombed, 
his  garment  of  blue  cotton,  greasy,  dusty, 
unwashed,  and  full  of  vermin;  slip-shod  shoes 
on  his  feet,  and  a blue  cap  on  his  head.  Oh, 
that  is  a priest,  a religious  teacher,  and  he  is 
probably  entering  that  house  to  ask  the  wo- 
man why  she  went  to  the  Protestant  church 
yesterday,  and  will  threaten  her  with  some 
dreadful  calamity  if  she  goes  again,  and  the 
woman  must  set  before  him  a good  square 
meal,  even  if  by  so  doing  she  and  her  children 
go  to  bed  this  evening  without  any  supper. 
It  was  a meal,  not  a soul,  that  he  sought. 
“Blind  leaders  of  the  blind!”  And  those  ap- 
pointed and  ordained  this  year  are  no  better 
than  those  of  fifty  years  ago.  and  the  Arch- 
bishop is  the  worst  of  them  all,  for  he  is  not 
only  ignorant  and  lazy,  but  impure,  and 
though  very  rich  is  well  described  in  Ezekiel 
34:2-4 

The  women  of  Turkey  are  not  homogene- 
ous They  are  of  many  different  races,  Turk  - 
ish,  Greek,  Armenian,  Syrian,  Koordish,  Fe- 
lahin,  Circassian,  Arabic  and  Jewish.  These 
races,  each  in  its  own  way,  are  most  religious. 


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But  the  learning  of  the  best  of  their  religious 
teachers  consists  of  being  able  to  repeat  nu- 
merous passages  from  their  holy  books  in  a 
sing-song  nasal  tone,  twice  or  three  times  a 
day,  and  to  go  through  a few  set  phrases  at 
circumcisions,  baptisms,  marriages  and  funer- 
als. These  services  all  being  in  a dead  lan- 
guage are  understood  by  neither  the  officiat- 
ing priest  nor  the  listening  women. 

The  priests  teach  the  women  a few  ceremo- 
nies, such  as  bowing  the  head,  swaying  the 
body  to  and  fro,  kneeling  till  the  forehead 
touches  the  ground,  then  rising  with  closed 
eyes  and  open  palms  spread  toward  heaven, 
muttering  words  of  supplication  to  the  Virgin 
mother.  The  women  go  through  these  cere- 
monies until  their  knuckles  and  knees  are  as 
calloused  as  horn.  They  have  asked  bread;  it 
does  not  occur  to  them  that  they  have  received 
a stone! 

As  a result  of  this  ignorant,  impure  priest- 
hood, we  have  the  selfish,  tyrannical  mother- 
in-law.  It  is  the  nature  of  woman  to  desire 
power,  and  if  this  desire  is  not  directed  and 
controlled  by  the  highest  of  motives,  it  must 
be  entirely  crushed,  or  if  baffled  in  one  direc- 
tion, it  seeks  revenge  on  some  innocent  object. 
Here  the  desire  for  power  is  not  crushed. 
Only  the  husband  will  not  give  the  wife  her 
right  and  share  with  her  what  God  gave  to 
the  united  head  of  the  family,  and  the  woman 
wreaks  her  revenge  on  the  son’s  wife. 

She  must  not  speak  aloud  in  the  presence 
of  her  mother-in-law,  nor  indeed  in  the  presence 
of  any  of  her  husband’s  relatives.  She  may  not 
sit  before  any  of  them,  she  may  not  leave  the 
house  without  the  permission  of  her  mother- 
in-law,  and  she  may  not  even  ask  to  go,  but 


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must  wait  until  the  mother-in-law  of  her  own 
accord  gives  leave.  For  weeks  after  her  mar- 
riage she  may  not  enter  a church,  not  even  for 
those  services  for  women  only.  For  months, 
yes  years,  in  Sabbath  school  she  may  not  read 
aloud  a verse  from  her  Bible  if  her  sister-in- 
law  or  the  most  distant  relation  of  her  hus- 
band is  within  hearing.  Nor  may  she  at  home 
even  silently  read  her  Bible  and  pray  if  there 
are  any  of  them  about;  and  there  is  no  private 
room  for  her  to  enter  and  shut  the  door.  She 
may  only  read  her  Bible  and  pray  after  the 
rest  are  all  asleep.  She  must  be  the  first  to 
rise  in  the  morning  and  the  last  to  bed  in  the 
evening. 

She  must  have  her  bed  put  up  and  be  ready 
to  take  up  those  of  the  other  members  of  the 
family  whenever  it  shall  please  them  to  rise. 
She  must  pour  water  on  the  hands  of  her 
mother,  father  and  brothers-in-law,  and  must 
know  by  instinct  just  the  moment  they  will 
want  her.  She  must  stand  with  her  hands 
crossed  while  they  eat  and  anticipate  every 
want,  and  when  they  have  finished,  she  may 
take  the  remains  of  the  meal  into  the  dark, 
dirty  little  kitchen,  and  after  having  poured 
water  on  the  hands  of  her  betters  and  swept 
up  the  crumbs,  she  may  satisfy  her  own  hun- 
ger if  there  be  enough  food  left  for  that,  and 
if  some  one  does  not  ask  for  a drink  of  water, 
or  if  the  everlasting  coffee  and  pipe  is  not 
called  for. 

The  youngest  son  of  the  house,  though  but 
eight  or  ten  years  of  age,  coming  in  from 
school  may  order  her  to  give  him  his  ball  or 
jack-knife,  to  take  his  books  or  clean  his  shoes. 
And  woe  to  her  if  she  happens  to  suggest  that 
he  might  wait  on  himself  a little,  or  to  say 


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she  does  not  know  where  the  thing  he  wants  is. 

The  mother-in-law  locks  up  all  eatables  and 
puts  the  key  in  her  pocket,  her  husband  may 
not  give  her  a bit  of  money,  she  may  not  ask 
him  for  a new  dress  or  a pair  of  shoes.  She 
must  wait  until  his  mother  suggests  that  he 
may  get  this  or  that  for  her.  The  nice  things 
her  own  mother  prepared  for  her  she  may  not 
wear  unless  his  mother  approves. 

As  time  passes  and  her  situation  calls  for 
some  delicacy  or  change  of  food,  she  dare  not 
ask  for  it.  She  may  not  talk  with  her  hus- 
band of  the  sweet  prospects,  nor  plan  with 
him  for  the  care  and  training  of  that  new  life. 
She  may  not  plan  nor  her  lingers  sew  those 
little  clothes  for  the  new  comer,  and  when  it 
arrives  she  must  not  caress  and  kiss  it  except 
by  stealth.  Nor  may  she  teach  the  little  one 
to  call  her  “mother;”  she  is  only  a "gelen" 
(bride).  To  its  father  she  must  teach  it  to  say 
"uncle,”  just  as  the  childi’en  of  the  other  sons 
of  the  house  do,  for  the  holy  names  of  mother 
and  father  may  be  applied  to  none  in  that 
house  as  long  as  the  mother-in-law  lives. 

Oh,  God,  how  long,  how  long!  we  often 
cry,  and  ask  why  girls  will  not  se^  what  is  be- 
fore them  and  refuse  to  marry  at  all. 

Let  us  look  at  that  side  of  it  a little.  Her 
mother  has,  from  the  time  she  could  talk, 
filled  her  brain  with  the  idea  that  to  marry  is 
the  chief  end  of  woman.  And  the  highest 
public  sentiment  in  the  most  advanced  com- 
munity of  Turkey  to-day  looks  on  the  unmar- 
ried female  as  unworthy  of  respect  or  sym- 
pathy. Her  father  may  stand  by  her  and 
protect  her  as  long  as  he  lives,  but  the  brother 
will  not  make  her  welcome  in  the  old  home 
after  the  father’s  death,  and  if  he  is  forced  to 


5 


support  her,  makes  her  life  miserable,  and  as 
yet  there  is  no  possible  way  of  her  supporting 
herself  except  the  very  few  who  are  employed 
by  the  Missionary  Boards.  So,  bad  as  the 
mother-in-law  is,  the  girl  knows  that  her  own 
brother’s  wife  will  be  worse.  And  there  is  no 
possibility  of  her  having  a home  with  a sister, 
so  she  marries. 

What  of  the  young  husband?  Does  he  ap- 
prove of  this  treatment  of  his  wife?  His 
mother  in  marrying  him  so  young  has  tied 
him  hand  and  foot.  He  cannot  support  him- 
self and  wife  if  he  leaves  his  father,  and  to 
stay  in  his  father’s  house  he  must  not  break 
with  his  mother. 

Ask  him  point-blank  what  he  would  do  if 
his  mother  should  beat  his  wife.  He  shrugs 
his  shoulders  and  says,  “Let  her  obey  and  not 
get  beaten.”  “But  whose  side  would  you 
take,  your  mother’s  or  your  wife’s?”  He  re- 
plies, “Should  I side  with  the  woman  of  to- 
day against  her  with  whom  I have  lived  all 
my  life?” 

But  you  ask,  after  all  we  have  done  for 
Turkey  is  there  no  cliange  for  the  better? 
Yes,  thanks  to  the  truth  introduced  under  the 
name  of  Protestant  Christianity,  much  of  the 
violent  hate  of  one  race  to  another  has  disap- 
peared, and  in  public,  at  least,  they  can  treat 
each  other  as  creatures  of  the  same  Creator  if 
not  as  children  of  the  same  Father. 

But  except  in  very  rare  cases,  the  priest,  the 
religious  teacher,  is  the  same  ignorant,  useless 
man.  “New  wine  cannot  be  put  into  old  bot- 
tles.” 

The  mother-in-law  has  not  “changed  her 
spots.”  And,  dear  reader,  if  I cannot  count 
the  present  number  of  kind,  considerate  ones 


6 


on  my  fingers,  I can  on  yours  and  mine  to- 
gether. 

I cannot  think  of  five  families  of  brothers 
where  an  unmarried  sister  would  be  loved, 
cherished  and  made  happy. 

The  husbands,  thanks  to  Jesus,  the  Savior 
of  woman,  the  loving,  tender  ones  are  on  the 
increase.  But  the  selfish,  care-nothing  ones 
still  exist  by  the  thousands. 

With  priests,  mothers-in-law, mothers,  broth, 
ers  and  husbands  wrapped  in  ignorant  selfish- 
ness, the  daughter,  sister,  wife  endures  what 
she  still  supposes  to  be  the  lot  of  all  women. 
She  is  unhappy,  she  is  miserable,  slie  has  just 
begun  to  hear  that  there  is  a Savior,  but  she 
knows  nothing  of  the  law  that  should  bring 
her  and  him  together,  and  with  her  intellect 
incased  in  the  rust  of  centuries,  she  waits  the 
helping  hand  of  the  Christian  women  of 
America. 

True  there  are  a few  centers  where  the  Bible 
and  school  are  found  hand  in  hand  breaking 
up  the  fallow  ground.  But  even  in  places 
where  the  evangelical  church  counts  its  mem- 
bers by  the  tens  and  its  school  children  by  the 
hundreds,  the  work  which  has  been  done  can 
only  be  compared  to  the  plowing  of  the  Ori- 
ental farmer.  And  as  to  that  still  needing  to 
be  done,  it  is  as  the  scratching  of  the  hens  in 
your  garden,  to  the  deep  furrows  of  your 
western  farmer. 

Are  you  discouraged?  Go  read  the  history 
of  your  own  ancestors,  be  it  Anglo-Saxon, 
Scotch-Irish,  Huguenot,  or  any  of  the  many 
other  branches  of  the  human  family  to  which 
we  are  allied  I care  not.  How  many  three 
score  and  ten  years,  what  labor,  what  toil,  ah, 
and  blood  too,  it  has  taken  to  set  you.  my 


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American  sister,  on  the  pinnacle  of  privilege 
which  you  now  enjoy.  And  now,  at  the  close 
of  only  one  three  score  and  ten  years,  shall  we 
cry,  “Is  this  all  after  we  have  done  so  much 
for  Turkey?” 

Take  Dr.  Rufus  Anderson’s  History  of 
American  Missions  in  the  Orient,  and  see  with 
how  little  energy  we  have  pushed  the  work, 
how  late  w^e  are  in  commencing  work  for  wo- 
men. Let  our  cry  he  shame,  shame  to  our- 
selves, and  let  us  gird  on  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit,  and  begging  His  help  let  us  renew  the 
work  with  more  zeal,  more  prayer,  much  more 
money  and  no  fewer  missionaries.  Let  us 
never  give  up  till  all  these  races  in  Turkey 
are  “clothed  with  righteousness,”  sitting  'with 
us  in  “heavenly  places”  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Hadjin,  May  21st,  1891. 

[The  above  leaflet  describes  Armenian  wo- 
men, who  belong  to  the  most  able,  intelligent 
and  progressive  race  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  ex- 
cepting, perhaps,  the  Greeks.  These  two 
races,  with  Circassian  colonists  from  Russia, 
are  the  only  people  of  Aryan,  or  Indo-Euro- 
pean stock  in  that  land. 

On  account  of  the  inaccessibility  of  Mos- 
lems, missionary  work  in  Turkey  has  been 
confined  chiefly  to  so-called  Christians-—!,  e. 
adherents  of  the  Armenian,  or  Gregorian,  the 
Greek,  the  Syrian,  the  Jacobite,  the  Chaldean 
and  the  Maronite  churches — well  described  as 
“The  Dead  Churches  of  the  Orient.” 

Both  race  and  religion  separate  these  Christ- 
ians from  Moslems,  or  followers  of  IVIoham- 
med,  among  whom  are  the  Turks,  Koords, 
Arabs.  Circassians  and  Georgians. 

A third  class,  comparatively  small  as  yet  in 


8 


number  though  great  in  influence,  consists  of 
Protestants,  children  of  the  American  churches 
which  maintain  missionaries  in  Turkey. 

Among  Protestants,  women  suffer  none  of 
the  disabilities  mentioned  in  the  foregoing 
leaflet.  Of  course  they  have  long  since  been 
removed  from  all  women  in  Constantinople 
and  Smyrna,  where  many  Europeans  reside. 
Western  civilization  is  also  beginning  to  tell 
upon  the  life  of  woman  in  the  smaller  seaports 
and  in  towns  near  the  coast;  but  it  is  only  a 
beginning. 

From  Constantinople  College  and  other  Prot- 
estant (missionary)  schools,  come  “sweet  girl 
graduates,”  Armenian,  Greek  and  Bulgarian, 
as  fair,  graceful  and  accomplished  (if  not  as 
learned)  as  from  any  of  the  higher  schools  for 
women  in  our  own  land;  but  they  are  very  few 
in  proportion  to  the  mass  of  the  people. 

On  the  whole,  Armenian  women  must  still  be 
described  as  above. 

Mart  Page  Wright.] 

February  28,  1896. 


Woman’s  Board  of  Afissions  of  the  Interior, 
Room  603,  59  Dearborn  St.,  Chicago,  111. 


